While we're librarians who work with electronic resources, many of us are also librarians who write, make music, paint, or create in myriad other ways. Both of us are poets and writing is a definitive part of our lives—it’s not a hobby. We suspect that there are other ER&L 2018 attendees who feel the same way about their creative lives and we’re certain those same people are doing great things for the libraries in which they work. For us, the boundary between our working life and our creative life is vaporous, if it exists at all.
So let’s share our creative achievements! Let’s talk about how the practice of making something in one realm lends itself to being a thoughtful, creative colleague. Let’s discuss how your facility with language and composition inspires innovations in your library instruction sessions. Let’s examine the tension that can exist between having to answer a thousand emails and getting to your gig on time. We want to hear from those of you who participate in art, music, writing, and creative communities, and we welcome those of you who might not be involved in creative communities but are nonetheless interested.
The Artist Librarian: A Panel on Creativity in Librarianship will begin with a panel conversation among five artist/librarian attendees. Then, we'll open the discussion up among panelists and audience members. Finally, we'll end with an open mic presentation from you. Read a poem, share your visual art, perform a song--we want to hear it, and we can't wait to hear from you!
Interested in participating? Email Sommer
sommer.browning@ucdenver.edu or Shannon
shannon.tharp@du.edu